


Brothers in arms

by NyeLung



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, can be read as gen or post-slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-07-10 07:29:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19902043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NyeLung/pseuds/NyeLung
Summary: The tragedy of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker was always that they loved each other too much and understood each other too little.





	Brothers in arms

**Author's Note:**

> Just a short translation of an older work in German written for a challenge called Bromance Moments. Have fun <3

### Brothers in Arms

They danced the old dance of the blades. Slowly and hesitant as though neither of them wanted to make the first hit. Carefully, they circled each other, always keeping the other one in their sight. The only sound in the cold corridor of durasteel was the humming of their lightsabers mixed with the rhythmic breathing of Vader's rebreather.

_"Now I am the Master."_

Obi-Wan could't bring himself to go into the offensive. Vader had less trouble with that. But Obi-Wan just couldn't. Even with everything he had gotten to know and everything he had seen himself, he couldn't attack the monster that had once been his brother Anakin.

_"I hate you."_

In his memories the flames of Mustafar licked his robes again while lava was raining on them during that fight that was fought beyond rationality and madness. The blood was rushing in his ears again and the air tasted of sulfur and fire. In these flames the monster Vader had been forged after he, his hand, had struck Anakin down.

_"You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you."_

But it had been Obi-Wan who had stuck Anakin in this cage that asphyxiated any life and drowned any light in darkness. He had created this monster just as much as the Emperor. He had betrayed his brother and had been running from the punishment for far too long. By what right was he allowed to say he loved him?  
Obi-Wan closed his eyes to receive the deadly blow. Vader hadn't hesitated when Obi-Wan had lowered his sword. Without mercy he had struck and cut Obi-Wan's mortal body in half.

It wasn't the end.

He could have gone over into the waiting embrace of the Force, could have forgotten everything and left it behind. All the pain, the guilt and regrets. On the other hand there was only this small, flickering light. Hope. Perhaps it was only a mad hallucination, one last self betrayal, but he was sure that he had felt Anakin. Only for a short moment and very weak but he was sure that in that cage Anakin Skywalker was still alive and Obi-Wan would help him like he had promised years ago.

It was painful to see Luke in a starfighter. He was so similar to his father. Less confident and tall – Luke had had the decency to stop growing contrary to Anakin – but the eyes were the same. This lightning blue that showed a lust for adventure and bravery. Anakin's eyes.

When Obi-Wan looked at Luke now, he didn't see the young son of Anakin and Padmé but Anakin himself. He saw the Anakin from when they first met. He remembered how they shook hands and he was struck by a feeling that could only be called a dark premonition.

_"Are you also a Jedi? Glad to meet you."_

He had felt it. He had always known that Anakin was dangerous behind the façade of the smiling kid. Even in that moment he had felt that Anakin's future was closely bound with death and shadows. He'd trained him anyway. First, only because of the promise he had given Qui-Gon despite it breaking his heart. Then, because he had learnt to love Anakin Skywalker.

When he had seen how Luke used the lightsaber of his father, he remembered how Anakin had fought. The same concentrated face. He remembered the endless hours that he had fought with Anakin in training or in real battle. Hours when only the Force was important. Hours when sweat was soaking all their clothes while the humming of their lightsabers gave the rhythm for that old dance of blades.

Neither Anakin nor Obi-Wan had been good at talking about their feelings, so they had fought with each other. It had been those hours in which they had been a true unit, in which they had been closer than twins because between them had been nothing but the Force.

He breathed in deeply reflexively – he was dead after all and didn't need to breathe any longer – to drown the bad memories from the Clone Wars. The endless hours when he had thought Anakin dead. The weeks he had spent in Ventress' prison, cut off from the Force, screaming for help with no one listening. It had been Anakin who had not given up on him and saved him at last.

_"You owe me and not just for saving your skin for the tenth time."_

Oh, how often Anakin had been his light to save him. Not that he hadn't repaid the favour over and over. Obi-Wan smiled at the memory. Yes, Anakin and himself had often gotten into trouble and not all of that had been thanks to his Padawan – albeit most of it.

"Luke, trust the Force."

And then the scream of millions that were blown to dust in a single moment. Blue eyes changed to poisoned yellow with that red ring that seemed to be a Sith thing. In the Temple Masters, younglings and children barely able to run were massacred, the newborns shot in their cribs. Everywhere Jedi were dying and theirs screams echoed through the Force for all times. Alderaan vanished in flames, left behind a bleeding rift in the Force, billions of sacrifices for the bloody throne of the Emperor.

Perhaps it had been wrong to train Anakin. After all, he had felt the danger himself. Perhaps it was also wrong to bring the attention of the Emperor on Luke. Those greedy fingers that would try to extinguish the light of the boy.

He had no regrets left. To see how Anakin had grown into a man, to call him brother. To see how Luke had grown into a man, to see his light. That had been worth it.

_"You were my brother Anakin. I loved you."_

A fight of father and son, arranged by the emperor to his amusement. He loved these games, had played them with Obi-Wan and Anakin as well. He delighted in Luke's resistance that was slowly breaking beneath Vader's attacks and failed to notice one important fact. Vader stood conflicted. Anakin didn't want this fight and after years and years he started to resist the dark side.

Luke used that and drove Vader back with a flurry of wild attacks, hurt him and ... hesitated. The last deadly blow never came. Instead he moved in front of the emperor, stood tall and proud, a shining echo of the Jedi of old times.

_"I am a Jedi like my father before me."_

Obi-Wan was so proud of Luke as he let his lightsaber fall to the ground and faced the full wrath of the emperor without giving in. He wanted to help him but there was nothing he could do, no way to stop the terrible Force lightning from torturing Luke. There was only one thing now that Vader was close to death.

"Anakin", he called out to his old brother. He could feel his light, knew that he was fighting to finally, finally come to the surface. But Anakin wasn't strong enough. Instead Vader got on his feet again and went to the side of his Master, the Force lightning reflecting in the black of his visor.

"Father, please!", Luke stretched out his hands while the Force lightning was shaking him down to his bones. His lips formed a silent "help" interrupted by bone chilling screams.

"Anakin, help him", Obi-Wan pushed in that short pause between the lightning flashes of the emperor.

"Now, young Skywalker, you will die." The pale lips of the emperor formed a grim smile.

"Anakin!", Obi-Wan yelled now to be louder than the screams of Luke. "Help him! He's your son!" For a terrible, long moment Anakin did nothing but then his light grew stronger and stronger, burnt through Vader's darkness while his gaze switched from the emperor to Luke and back. He fought. "What would Padmé do?", Obi-Wan played his trump card.

Anakin made his choice.

Anakin Skywalker died with a last look at his son, one last breath. Luke cried. He grieved the father he never got to know. Obi-Wan kept a respectful distance because he had no right to disturb this. It wasn't thanks to him that Anakin had returned to the light. Far to the contrary, actually, it was his fault that Anakin's light had been lost for so long.

Confused, Obi-Wan noticed wetness on his cheeks. He was crying. After years even he was allowed to grieve Anakin although his brother was saved now. Redeemed but most of all finally free.

Of course, it was only the memory of tears that he felt as a Force ghost but they opened the hatches to all those feelings he had suppressed these last years. After more than twenty years it finally all came crashing down around him. The fear, the grief, the guilt and the regrets. All these feelings he had not allowed himself for so long, couldn't have allowed himself without breaking down under the weight.

He grieved the boy that had died far too young. He grieved the brother he had left to the flames. He grieved and yet he regretted nothing but leaving Anakin on Mustafar. It had been impossible for him to deal the final blow but he also had been unable to help Anakin after all he had done. He had made a choice that had killed him just as much as it had killed Anakin.

_"You were my brother Anakin. I loved you."_

The warmth of a hand seeped into his shoulder. Obi-Wan knew that it was Anakin's hand without looking, too well did he know its size and overall feel. He just didn't understand it. He looked up and his confusion grew. In Anakin's eyes stood so much. Pain, anger, grief but above all his eternal friendship to Obi-Wan that no betrayal had been able to break.

"Anakin", he whispered hoarsely. There were so many words he wanted to say but none could convey what he needed it to.

Anakin understood him anyway. "Obi-Wan", he replied and a small smile tugged at his mouth.

It wasn't easy to hug someone as a Force ghost but they made it work somehow. Finally, they were together again. There was still talking to be had in the future. Anakin's fall, Obi-Wan's betrayal, those many, many dead. All of that could not be forgotten but for the moment it didn't matter. In this moment the only thing that mattered was that they were together again.

**Author's Note:**

> The tragedy of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker was always that they loved each other too much and understood each other too little.  
> That or something similar was said by some wise person on tumblr. If you recall the name, please tell me cause I can't for the life of me figure it out.


End file.
